Artemis II Crew revealed Parts of the Closest Moon No Human Ever Seen Before!

We expect to surpass that Apollo distance record in 55 minutes and 50 seconds. We are now looking live at a camera mounted on one of the spacecraft's solar arrays pointed to our lunar neighbor. We are currently just 14,200 miles away from the Moon and 247,672 miles away from planet Earth. Houston, Integrity for AGA. Ready to copy. Dioxide 2.3, oxygen, which has the alarm, 26.3, 73.1 degrees, 10.3 psi. And one follow-on question. We understand milestone words will be directly following the conference. Will that take the place of the PAO event or will the PAO event still take place per the timeline? Good question, Christina. The milestone words that we exchange at the record distance at the end of the conference will take the place of the PAO timelined activity. So that will be our moment to talk about this occasion. And after that, there will be no more expected PAO words. And you can get straight into your flyby. Copy all AGA. Okay, thank you. And final clarification. Even though it's taking the place of it, it will all just be on OE1 with HHP camera, no additional video. Is that right? Affirm. Okay, thank you. Some of us had already heard that. Sorry about the second question. We appreciate it. Talk to you soon. No problem. Those communications between NASA astronaut Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut and today's CAPCOM, or Capsule Communicator, the one person here speaking with the crew right now, that is Jenny Gibbons. She is an Artemis II backup crew member here in Mission Control Houston. We are now four days, 18 hours, and 30 minutes into the flight of Orion for Artemis II. We talked a little bit about the views and the cameras being used on the Orion spacecraft. And again, we do have GoPros on the tip of each solar array wing. Now, the bandwidth is a little bit limited because having a crew on board, we do have to downlink a lot more data. That includes their environmental control and life support system. We are not the only data, this view that you see, coming down from the spacecraft. And so we do rely on sharing some of that with the other flight controllers in Mission Control. This helps the team monitor all systems aboard the spacecraft and ensure the safety of our astronauts. We are standing by for a situation report from the crew aboard the spacecraft. They've been imaging the whole moon. There is now a new crew at the window. That would be Victor Glover and Christina Cook. And so being it their first time since they have moved up to the window positions, they have a chance to orient themselves and describe and take pictures of any color or albedo variations across the surface. Reminder, albedo is the brightness or reflectiveness. Integrity Science for a science sit-rep, when you're ready. Houston, Integrity, we have no external view of the moon right now for the flooding crew members, so my only science sit-rep is that we have Victor in window three doing observations and Christina in window two with the long lens. Integrity, we copy. Integrity, are the shrouds still on windows one and four? And if so, would you consider trying to get a view through one of those windows? Before, because the Earth is too bright, it's impacting ice peripheral vision. And then I can get a great big glimpse out the docking hatch window. I can see Oriental south out of the South Pole. And the primary thing that I see from Oriental right now is just the long trenches that come out. And, you know, when you come out the north side of Oriental, the ejecta kind of boulders across the northern half of the far side. But coming out the southern half of Oriental, I just see those large, here they look like gorges or almost like rain when it comes down the Grand Canyon and then fingers off into the desert, kind of what it looks like. Also, Burgess Alpha is extremely bright. It's the brightest thing that I can see. Even brighter now than Aristarchus, which is heading off to the Terminator. It's almost impossible now to see Aristarchus, the thing that Jeremy and I look so much at. I can just barely see the crater rays from home. And I would say for Albedo right now, I would go back to Grimaldi. Grimaldi is still extremely dark, especially in that southwest corner. And there are parts of Oriental and the outer ring of Oriental that reach that same level of darkness, especially the rings of Oriental reach the same level of darkness as Grimaldi. And then south of Grimaldi, Jeremy and I were noting a few other just really dark areas of Mare there. And those have that same darker Albedo. But Burgess Alpha is the brightest and Grimaldi is the darkest. Integrity Science, that was a great description. Thank you and thanks for the docking window geometry to give us that description. Any comments before you go on the annular ring in Oriental? The annular ring, which I think everybody kind of describes as like a pair of lips or a kiss on the far side of the moon from here is very circular in nature. The northern part of it is wider, darker. The southern part is much lighter. It is very neat looking. It is far more circular than I remember it looking in our training. The darkness of the northern side of the annular ring is the same darkness from here out this docking hatch window as the center Mare in Oriental. Not quite as dark as Grimaldi, but it is probably only because dust and littering has kind of impacted over time. Reid, that is exactly what we were looking for. Thanks so much. You have heart hands coming out of the CERV. Say that again, Kelsey. Just saying that the CERV was really excited about that. That annular ring was something we were really eager to hear about, so thanks. Yep, you bet. And now Victor and Christina are moving on to Oriental. I got them situated over there a little bit late. That was NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman now providing a science sit-rep as he is away from the windows most of the time. He is working as the support person along with Jeremy Hansen in the spacecraft as Victor Glover and Christina Cook are now at Windows 2 and 3 able to photograph the moon. Christina and Victor are also providing recorded information to their portable computing devices, their PCDs, and the science team will have access to that at a later time. They will then review it and compile all of this data to help further our understanding of the moon. One of the items you heard mentioned was Oriental Basin. This has been a very exciting opportunity for the crew. They have all been very excited about seeing Oriental as well as the science team has been looking forward to it. It is known as the Grand Canyon of the Moon, as we discussed earlier. From the pictures, the science team is hoping that the crew will take centered images of the entire basin and surrounding craters in a single frame, but also use those 80 to 400 millimeter zoom lenses to create a mosaic entire basin. With their unaided eyes, the science team is hoping the crew will describe Southern Dark Annular Ring, which you heard Reid just describing, as well as any color, albedo, texture, or topography across the mare patches and ring mountains. The science team reports that the observations will be used to study the geologic evolution of the youngest lunar basin and to inform formation hypotheses for the annular ring. And again, another fun fact about Oriental is the diameter is the same distance between Johnson Space Center, where we are today, and Kennedy Space Center, where the crew launched on April 1st. This live view from the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis II mission, now 7,373 miles away from the moon, 251,130 miles from Earth. Again, the Artemis II crew passed the Apollo 13 record of the humans farthest from the Earth today at 12.57 p.m. Central Time, 1.57 p.m. Eastern Time. That distance set by Apollo 13 was 248,655 statute miles. We have clearly passed that, and we expect to pass that by about 4,105 miles. That will be when the spacecraft reaches its farthest distance from the Earth. It could be around 252,760 miles, but again, these are approximations and are targets, and we will make sure to report back the final numbers once we have them. We have some refined times of when we expect to have Earth set, of Earth behind the moon while Orion flies behind the moon. That would be about 5.41 p.m. Central, 6.41 Eastern. The spacecraft would make its closest approach to the moon at 6 o'clock Central, 7 Eastern, and that would be about 4,066 miles, and then at 6.02 p.m. Central. The spacecraft will reach its farthest distance from the Earth. We anticipate that will be about 252,755 miles, which would be 4,111 miles farther than Apollo 13. We would see Earth rise again at 6.21 p.m. Central Time, and a few moments later, a few minutes later, regain communications with the crew. Currently aboard Orion, Victor Glover and Christina Cook are the two team members conducting lunar flyby observations, meaning they are using the Nikon cameras to photograph the moon and their PCD, or the Portable Computing Device, to conduct annotations. They are both recording information that will be downlinked to the science crew, and tomorrow morning, the science team will have a conference with the team. While the information is so fresh, they'll be speaking with the crew about their observations and their data collection. Otherwise, most of tomorrow, Flight Day 7, is considered an off day. We are now just under an hour until Orion passes behind the moon, and we lose communication with the crew. They will be out of reach with any of our Deep Space Network antennas. That loss of signal will last about 40 minutes, and we expect to regain communications with them once they fly behind the other side of the moon. While they are behind the moon, they will also reach their max Earth altitude, as well as their closest approach to the lunar surface. The view you have right now is a live stream from a camera on Orion's solar arrays. You are looking at a live view of the moon, and four people are inside that spacecraft taking pictures of it, telling us everything that they are seeing, the first humans to do so in over 50 years. They'll be sending those pictures down for all of us to enjoy, and of course, especially the science team, who are very excited for what they are learning today. It appears the Artemis II spacecraft, Orion, is now under 5,000 miles away from the moon. Again, we expect their closest distance to the moon to be about 4,066 miles. That is an estimate at this point, and we will make sure to share that closest approach distance once we receive it. Houston, it's a great question. Did you just want us to cool the window with the condensation hose, or did you want us to put the shroud back on and cool the window at the same time? Victor, we definitely want you to cool down the window with the condensation hose. It's crew preference whether you put the shroud back on. The hose will allow you to do that if it helps with your lunar flyby. Okay, copy. We're going to do both at the same time. Thank you. Houston, copy. Houston, thank you for that suggestion. The cabin is darkened again, and that makes a big difference for the imagery. And for science, we are now seeing a half moon. Thank you, Victor. We're happy to hear it, and we see half moon, full moon joy still. Crew reporting from Orion that they are seeing half the moon, which is about what it looks like here from this view from the spacecraft. However, what has become a little bit of a catchphrase for this mission, everyone is reporting full moon joy. We are keeping up with which targets the crew is tracking through their lunar targeting package. They are just wrapping up their second. Another observation the window team commented on, and Christine and I discussed a bit is in Hertzsprung, the solid and intact crater is very smooth. If it were a dirt road, it's very hard packed. And then you go outside of it, and that outer crater, that's the one that is older, it is a little rougher and more jagged. It starts to get into more loose looking terrain. And the smooth interior also causes the craters that are inside of the larger crater, the smaller craters, to have really sharp edges, sharp distinct edges. We are getting our first views from Orion after the loss of signal. Orion has come back around the other side of the moon, and that little crescent that you see is Earth, over 252,000 miles away. With this transit complete, lunar flyby continues, but Orion has also technically begun its journey home. Right now, the crew are getting a few moments to enjoy and take photos of Earthrise for themselves, and we expect to contact them shortly. But we do have good signal coming from Orion. This view on your screen is a visualization. The spacecraft now 4,224 miles away from the moon, and that number will now continue to grow, while the number of distance from Earth, 252,699 miles, will continue to shrink all the way until our crew is back home. The Artemis astronauts are about to experience a solar eclipse from their capsule, and this is a solar eclipse that no one else on Earth will experience. This eclipse is about 54 minutes, and to the astronauts it will look a lot like a total solar eclipse on Earth, except the moon is going to be huge compared to the sun, unlike when you watch one on Earth, and the moon and the sun appear about the same size in the sky. We're interested to learn if they see the outer corona when the sun is fully obscured by the moon, and because of how big the moon will be from their perspective, the total phase of the eclipse will last nearly an hour. The astronauts will see a partial solar eclipse as the moon covers and uncovers the sun, which is before and after totality, so much like us on Earth, they will have eclipse glasses so they can safely view that portion. We're interested to learn if they see the outer corona when the sun is fully obscured by the moon, and because of how big the moon will be from their perspective, the total phase of the eclipse will last nearly an hour. The astronauts will see a partial solar eclipse as the moon covers and uncovers the sun, which is before and after totality, so much like us on Earth, they will have eclipse glasses so they can safely view that portion. The astronauts will also be using cameras to capture images of the corona during the eclipse. There also may be some other planets visible during the eclipse, including Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury. If they can identify what part of the sky they're looking at, this can help train future Artemis astronauts on what part of the sky they're seeing. This provides useful knowledge in challenging situations when they may need to rely on that information. This is Artemis Mission Control. That view you're seeing on your screen is coming from the solar array wing cameras outside of the Orion spacecraft. And you can see the light starting to come into view as the solar eclipse period is starting to end. Still no corona structure at this time, just continuing to grow in intensity. Copy, Victor. And reminder, you still should have several minutes before the eclipse glasses need to go on. And we can send you up a reminder when you're getting close to take your eyes away from the D5 viewfinder. But you should be good for several more minutes. Copy. Thank you. And yes, please send us a reminder. Thank you. Okay, we all think we're starting to see something. I believe the most popular term is maybe air. As the light grows in intensity and the horizon on this side becomes very distinct, you can still see Earth shine, even though the sun's brightness is definitely growing in intensity. Love the description, Victor. I'm sure as the next couple minutes progress, more of those structures will continue to pop out. In the center of it, there's a towering light. There's a towering light and then there were like two streamers that were going 30 degrees out from it. And now it is just extremely bright. Houston copies all. It's almost time to get a little warm. And we copied all. We wanted to remind you at this point on the eclipse glasses. It should be about time for those. Houston, we copy all. We are in eclipse glasses. That was an absolutely spectacular, magnificent experience. Thanks for the report. We sure wish we were there with you. And during that time, the crew saw a mostly dark moon and they used the opportunity to analyze the solar corona, which is the sun's outermost atmosphere while it was visible. And then once the sun was completely out of view behind the moon, the crew looks for impact flashes, which they reported seeing multiple impact flashes. And those are flashes of light from meteoroids striking the surface of the moon. They also looked for dust wafting above the limb or the edge of the moon, along with some deep space targets, including planets. And they noticed Mars off to the distance. And we also saw Venus on one of the solar ray wing cameras early on in the eclipse period. The crew also looked at parts of the moon illuminated by Earth's shine, which is the sunlight reflected from the Earth when they come around toward the moon's near side, the very end of that flyby window. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology